"This was a fun and pretty successful week. We traveled down to Bangkok for leadership training which was a super long trip. It was kind of nice seeing other Elders from my MTC group there. We were then able to go back to P-lok. Elder Calderon is serving there and I was able to do switch offs with him. It is his last transfer and it was fun to be able to serve with him this last time. He is a really good teacher. I was also able to see some members again. They want to take us sight seeing when you come to pick me up. Coming home from P-lok was terrible because we rode an old bus that was way small and we were on it for 6 hours! We then trained everyone else in the areas close to Chiang Mai, like Chiang Rai and Lampang. I like being companions with Elder Black. He is really knowledgable and knows a lot about the scriptures. We call ourselves Blacksmith. haha"
"We only had two days in our own area this week. We spent three days traveling, one day in Bangkok and one day in P-lok. Literally I am pooped from traveling. However, we have some new changes that we need to do. We now have to get two referrals and two part-member family lessons each week. It is a little tougher but possible. The training was all about focusing on families and the temple."
"We had some cool miracles happen. We were able to teach a part member family and their little girls are going to get baptized. They are 11 years old and were never baptized. The father is coming along and is starting to help out at the church. He will be the turning point for the family. On Friday morning, we came to the church to do some training and we met a guy who is a member that wanted to park his car at the church while he did some things in the area. He has been a member for 20 years but less active for quite awhile. Later that night, we were at the church again having sports night and two people walked up. I went over to greet them. It was the same guy from earlier and his girlfriend who wasn't a member. I started talking to them about baptism and missionary stuff and invited them to come inside for a little church tour. We showed them the font and then testified about families. After talking to them we prayed and Elder Black gave an example prayer. Then we asked the girl to pray and she did. When we first started teaching her, she was kind of just taking it as a joke. Then as we were testifying, she started to become more interested. While she was praying, she stopped randomly after saying about three sentences. We just all sat there in the silence for quite awhile. Then we heard sobbing sniffling sounds and the boy quickly closed the prayer for her saying in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. He asked her what was wrong and she asked who was patting her head? We answered no one. Then she asked it again. Her boyfriend just smiled and said that no one touched her. She then looked at Elder Black who bore testimony of the Holy Ghost and became very interested in what he had to say. We are going to meet with her again on Tuesday and I really hope she comes with an answer that this church is true. I'm sure she will. It was a cool experience."
"Well that was my week. We are going to a Hmong village today, so that should be fun. I love you all so much!"
Elder Jacob Smith
